Bob Corell – Happy Birthday!

We at the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, Association of World Reindeer Herders and the UArctic EALAT Institute would like to wish Dr. Robert Corell warm greetings for his 80th birthday today.

Dr. Corell has been a key ally of reindeer herders for many years and was a key partner in the early planning, initiation and implementation of the International Polar Year project EALAT. Corell has consistently sought out and promoted cooperation with reindeer herders and indigenous peoples and has played a key role in elevating the acceptance of indigenous knowledge and creating links and spaces where scientists and indigenous knowledge holders can share and learn from each other in atmospheres of trust and respect.

Watch Corell talking about these themes in the ICR documentary ‘People and Reindeer in a Changing Climate’. There is a long list of video interviews with Corell here at the Climate Institute.

You can also watch Corell in conversation with Svein Mathiesen here and Corell at the opening of the International Polar Year in Kautokeino here on the ICR YouTube channel.
Dr. Corell is a Principal at the Global Environment Technology Foundation and leads its Center for Energy and Climate Solutions. He has several academic appointments: Senior Fellow, College of Arts and Science and its School of Environment, Arts and Society, Florida International University; The Arctic Chair and Professor II at the University of Tromsø (Norway); and Professor II at the UArctic EALAT Institute for Reindeer Husbandry. He is a Member of the Modeling Team for Climate Interactive’s Initiatives, Council Member of the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) and Lead Author of GEA’s Chapter 3 on Environment and Energy. Dr. Corell is Founder and Chair of the Global Climate Action Initiative established in 2008 to assist international negotiators (US, China, Indonesia, etc.) in the UNFCCC and beyond processes. In 2010, Dr. Corell also founded the non-profit Global Science Associates, an interdisciplinary nucleus for the world’s best science experts and collaboratories. He lead the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2005) and most recently lead a comprehensive study of governance issues in the circumpolar Arctic. He was recognized with the other scientists for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments and in 2010, Dr. Corell was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine by the Norges Veterinærhøgskole (Norwegian School of Veterinarian Science).

Dr. Corell is actively engaged in research concerned with the sciences of global change and the interface between science and public policy, particularly research activities that are focused on global and regional climate change, related environmental issues, and science to facilitate understanding of vulnerability and sustainable development. Dr. Corell was Assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation where he had oversight for the Atmospheric, Earth, Ocean Sciences and Polar Programs and was Chair for over a decade of the United States Global Change Research Program reporting to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is a former professor and academic administrator at the University of New Hampshire. Dr. Corell is an oceanographer and engineer by background and training, having received Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees at Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. degree from MIT with graduate studies in oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He has also held appointments at the Woods Hole Institution of Oceanography, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Washington, and Case Western Reserve University. He has published several dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters during the past decade. Dr. Corell’s most recent section on mid-century climate projections will be released in June 2012 in “2052 – A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years” by Jorgen Randers.